For those of you have registered for the guided bird walk on Mon 6 May please note that the postcode is SP3 6NA if you are driving straight there for 5:30pm start, otherwise meet at the Nadder Centre for 5:15pm departure with car share. Follow the signs for the farm and park at the farm buildings. There is a limited number on this trip, so if you'd like to join it, please email us first, via the contact page.

This Saturday CPRE are celebrating Earth Day with three interesting talks in the beautiful surroundings of Langford Lakes. 

Earth Day talks 
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Lynn Trigwell
Lynn is a Landscape Architect who has worked in both the private and public sectors. Since 2018 she’s been Head of Climate and Environment for Wiltshire Council. She oversees a wide range to services delivered by the Council in partnership with local communities and local interest groups, landowners and managers, statutory bodies and 3rd sector organisations such as Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and the RSPB. These areas include Archaeology, Landscape, Urban Design and Ecology and in February this year Climate was added. Lynn will be speaking about some of the activities that her teams are working on and share some of the exciting new pilot work they are supporting on the council’s own landholdings.

Balancing the challenges and opportunities for our natural environment in Wiltshire.


Alex Atkinson
 
Alex oversees the management the Wiltshire Wildlife Trusts 20 southern reserves, including lowland bog, ancient woodland and everything on the successional scale between the two.
 
Restoring natural processes - practical examples for a managed landscape.


Peter Thompson
Peter Thompson originally trained as an agronomist, advising farmers for 10 years. He then went on to work for the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, as their Farmland Ecology adviser, giving guidance to land managers across UK farms. He covers a wide range topics on countryside issues in the talks he gives and leads many training events related to the management of habitats and the wildlife that lives there. He ran the pilot scheme looking into the potential of “Farmer Clusters” for Natural England – which of course has now been widely adopted across the UK.
Now “retired”, amongst many other activities, Peter is Chair of the Salisbury & District Natural History Society.

The countryside’s future – my shot at seeing the wood through the trees 

For the last in our winter series of indoor meetings, in the Victoria Hall, Tisbury High Street, at 7:30pm on Thursday 11 April, what more appropriate topic – after such a wet winter - than that of Wild Fish, and the work of the Wild Trout Trust?

The Wild Trout Trust provides expert advice and practical project delivery across the UK and Ireland, as well as working to inspire others and give them advice and practical skills, to improve and maintain lakes and rivers for the benefit of trout and all wildlife.
 
We shall hear from Shaun Lennard, an unashamed ‘fish bloke’ whose childhood was spent in and on the Indian Ocean and in the trout streams of southern Ireland. Shaun’s whole professional life, after degrees in marine biology and pollution, has been spent in fishery management; he was Head of Fishery Studies at Sparsholt College near Winchester until 2009. Since then, he has been Director of the Wild Trout Trust.

The threat to wildlife from pollution of the River Nadder is not a new topic for the Society. We’ve heard previously from David Holroyd, one of our members, and last year we heard from the Director of the Wessex Rivers Trust. The issue matters particularly here in Wiltshire and Hampshire where most of the planet's chalk streams are located; the reason the River Nadder as a tributary of the Hampshire Avon is a 'Special Area for Conservation'.

Shaun is the ideal person to tell us more on these things, about the continuing pressure on our rivers more widely, whether from sewage treatment, from farms or other sources, the potential role of the government’s recent initiative to create Local Nature Recovery Strategies and a host of other topics.

As with all our events, this meeting is free if you’re a member of the Society or under 21, and you’ll be very welcome to come as a guest visitor for the payment of £2.

​Dick Budden

I love to hear skylarks singing on sunny days above the downs and the fields around Tisbury. It must be one of our most well-known birds, as there must be few who do not recognise its song, delivered from high in the sky. An inspiration to artists, poets and composers, the skylark is often easier to hear than see, and when on the ground, its drab inconspicuous plumage can make it difficult to spot. It may only be up close that you can spot its distinctive crest, which clearly separates it from the somewhat similar, but less stocky, meadow pipit, which has a far less exuberant song.

Although there is a good handful of lark species to be found on the continent, there is just one other that you might see in the UK, the rarer woodlark. This is a bird of the heaths, so the best place to look for them near here would be in the New Forest. Slightly smaller than the skylark, with a short tail that makes it look a bit like a bat when in flight, the woodlark shares the same brown streaky plumage as the skylark.

The plumage of larks and pipits provides effective camouflage for the birds when feeding and nesting on the ground. This is a common adaptation for ground nesting birds and serves well to protect them from conventional predators. Unfortunately, it does little to protect them from challenges brought by the loss of stubbles, and other changes to agricultural practices. Numbers have dropped by 15% over the last 30 years and the bird is now Red Listed in the UK. Ground nesting birds are particularly vulnerable to straying dogs. This is one of the reasons why the Countryside Code makes it a legal requirement to have your dog on a lead on open access land between 1 March and 31 July, and under effective control for the rest of the year. Responsible pet owners will help our endangered birds to have a successful breeding season.

​Andrew Graham